SiteGround VPS Review (2018) — Server Host Ratings By Experts & Users

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By: Mark Jefferson
Updated: January 11, 2018

Our experts take readers step-by-step through a variety of hosting and programming tasks in our popular series of "How-To" guides.

Like Goldilocks, VPS hosting customers are happiest with server space that is “just right.” Shared hosting is too small, and dedicated servers are too big — but the scalable, flexible resources of a virtual private server are the perfect fit.

Whether you’re eating porridge, sitting in chairs, or lying in beds, the three bears of web hosting plans can give you an overwhelming number of options. Fortunately, one of our favorite hosting providers, SiteGround, offers an incredibly fast, adjustable cloud VPS option that can shrink or grow to meet your exact needs. Read on for our review of the plan’s features, pricing, performance, reliability, and managed services.

SiteGround VPS Hosting Review: 4.6 / 5.0 Rating

SiteGround switched from traditional VPS hosting plans in favor of cloud-based configurations, which provide a greater combination of flexibility, scalability, and economic viability. Although cloud servers are, by nature, virtual private servers, a VPS is not inherently a cloud server.

SiteGround’s cloud VPS plans are fully managed, so you don’t have to install or adjust anything on your server if you don’t want to. Customers can upgrade on the fly by adding more CPUs, storage, or RAM instantly with no downtime. Your data storage is redundant, just like everything else on the cloud — if one hard drive fails, your data is still safe and will be accessible from other hard drives in the network. We put SiteGround’s cloud hosting plan through its paces recently and put together a full review, which you can see below:

VPSRATING

SiteGround: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 6 minutes

Alexandra Leslie (HostingAdvice.com):
When it comes to VPS hosting, SiteGround does things a little differently. Instead of managing a typical virtual private server network, they have their very own cloud platform that they built from the ground-up. It's similar to VPS, with shell access... Go to full review »

SiteGround “Cloud” VPS Hosting Review: 4.6 / 5.0 Rating

SiteGround’s VPS alternative, cloud hosting, can essentially simulate a dedicated server. Small websites with consistently low or moderate traffic do not need the computing resources of an entire server, but it might need some help to handle the occasional spikes associated with a new marketing campaign or product rollout.

With SiteGround cloud hosting, customers can add more power with either just a few clicks of the mouse or automatically scale bandwidth or memory to handle the demand. When the rush of traffic is over, the site returns to its original server configurations without needing to pay for a dedicated server month over month.

We love how SiteGround consistently improves its technology and services, and the ultra-scalable cloud hosting packages are just more great examples of this. Check out our guru’s review for more information.

CLOUDRATING

SiteGround: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 6 minutes

Alexandra Leslie (HostingAdvice.com):
SiteGround brings industry-leading performance and security to the cloud hosting space. They offer supreme scalability and a fully managed support system, including an expert technical support staff and three datacenter locations for the enterprise client that... Go to full review »

SiteGround “Managed” VPS Hosting Review: 4.9 / 5.0 Rating

SiteGround’s cloud hosting is always fully managed, meaning you never have to worry about updating server software; if upgrades, patches, or security updates are needed, SiteGround’s knowledgeable experts will automatically take care of them. Managed services make cloud hosting a walk in the park, especially when you consider the technical experience required to properly configure, balance, and maintain virtual, cloud, or dedicated servers.

SiteGround, in particular, does exceedingly well with managed services. Company representatives pre-install and maintain all software customers want on their server, along with handling the day-to-day IT tasks. When you need to speak to someone, SiteGround touts incredibly responsive support technicians; someone will respond to an email ticket in less than 10 minutes, while those on live chat or making a phone call will not experience any hold music.

VPSRATING

SiteGround: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 6 minutes

Alexandra Leslie (HostingAdvice.com):
When it comes to VPS hosting, SiteGround does things a little differently. Instead of managing a typical virtual private server network, they have their very own cloud platform that they built from the ground-up. It's similar to VPS, with shell access... Go to full review »

Other SiteGround “VPS Reviews” By Feature

Overall, SiteGround’s VPS cloud hosting offers high-quality infrastructure with an affordable price tag and many beneficial features. SiteGround servers include the latest technologies and are able to provide quick, efficient solutions that leave plenty of room for future expansion and growth.

Features: 4.9 / 5.0 Rating

SiteGround offers a whole host of features (no pun intended) with its cloud services. We’ve touched on a few benefits already in our reviews, but here are a few additional freebies to appreciate:

WHM & cPanel: Each cloud account includes a web hosting control panel to give you full control over the domains, files, and programs making up your website.

Softaculous: The auto-installer provides a wide variety of web applications that can be added to your hosting environment with just one click, meaning you can focus on development and not software installation or configuration.

MySQL & PostgreSQL: SiteGround offers you the option of using either open-source database system. Adding the PostgreSQL option shows that the company won’t restrict developers’ preferences.

Five versions of PHP: Allowing the chance to choose from multiple versions of PHP can be a great perk if you have applications or code with known conflicts with newer versions of PHP.

Dedicated IP address: Having a dedicated address is a great add-on to SiteGround’s cloud hosting. Oftentimes, customers have to pay an additional fee for the add-on component.

iptables firewall: A little extra security never hurts, and the ability to configure your firewall policy is a huge asset. A versatile firewall utility, iptables is created for the Linux operating system and allows you to create your own rules and chains.

While SiteGround provides a ton of developer-friendly options, such as the choice between the Apache or NGINX web server, we appreciate the inclusion of a free domain name registration and other components that will appeal to those newer to the cloud VPS hosting ranks.

Pricing: 4.8 / 5.0 Rating

The pricing for SiteGround cloud hosting is very reasonable and one of the best reasons to sign up for the service. VPS plans might start at cheaper rates, but we appreciate the added flexibility and other perks that the cloud offers.

SiteGround offers a variety of cloud hosting configurations, all loaded with a ton of extra features.

SiteGround also offers customers the option to customize their cloud hosting plan. Need more memory and less disk space? No problem, you can adjust your plan to meet your needs exactly. With the company’s Create Your Own Plan tool, customers can easily match their required computing resources to their budgetary restrictions.

Performance: 4.6 / 5.0 Rating

With so many servers ready to store and load your website data or applications, the performance of SiteGround cloud hosting is far superior to many traditional VPS alternatives. Distributed data, scalability, dedicated resources, and no downtime all add up to fantastic performance expectations and is especially suitable for sites with expected traffic spikes.

In addition, the company tailors caching programs to the customer’s chosen content management system to further speed up and optimize page loads. Whether you’re using WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or Magento, SiteGround has the custom solutions to maximize performance.

Reliability & Support: 5.0 / 5.0 Rating

In terms of reliability, cloud hosting is probably the most dependable hosting service available because of the network’s built-in redundancies and load distribution, not to mention improved security compared to shared hosting and traditional VPS hosting.

Powered by several proprietary programs, SiteGround support teams will address issues incredibly quickly.

SiteGround employees pride themselves on speedy support, and the company enjoys a reputation as an industry leader in this area. Agents will even help with application and software errors, a service most hosts don’t offer. The company has built and implemented several proprietary programs for tracking issues, and we love that customers can receive instant help through live chats and phone calls.

How Does SiteGround Compare with Competitors?

For some site owners, SiteGround offers more features, performance, and support than many competitors. Few other hosts include the myriad of free services and add-ons, such as a dedicated IP and SSL, for anywhere near the same price point.

We appreciate that the host has adopted an attitude of innovation in contrast to the standard server management practices and software. As a team, SiteGround prefers to create solutions internally, often leading to unique, innovative technologies for server security, speed, and uptime.

All that said, we like to present alternative options. Our top-ranked VPS host might not be the perfect fit for you, but comparing the company’s plan with our review of SiteGround can help you determine which features are most important. In addition to SiteGround, here is another host we recommend:

SiteGround Servers Get High Marks for Performance and Support

So what’s the bottom line? SiteGround cloud hosting offers great performance, reliability, and support that customers seem to love. Personally, I’ve been dealing with web hosting and web hosting companies for many years, and it’s refreshing to find a company that really cares about customer satisfaction and can deliver intricate and impressive technology-driven hosting experiences. From everything I’ve seen so far, SiteGround is a great choice, both for the company’s technical prowess and for its passionate support philosophy.

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About the Author

Mark Jefferson

Mark Jefferson is an IT professional with more than 18 years of experience in various niches in the tech industry. Having done network design, server repair, programming, and design for a number of global corporations for many years, Mark now works as a freelance consultant and enjoys helping small businesses get started with a solid web presence and other technical solutions to move their business forward. He has a penchant for giving non-tech businesses and individuals a fair and thorough understanding of what they need to accomplish their goals, and he truly enjoys helping people in any way he can — in and out of the IT business world.

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